Zambia Hunt

Part 1 of 5 — The Christian and Civil Government

Three different people from our church have told me this year about their experiences at the passport office. It’s notorious for inefficiency — lost documents, one delay after another. But if you put money in a civil servant’s hand, or into their mobile money account, your document mysteriously appears. If you’ve had that kind of experience, you might be asking yourself a question: if this is how government so often works, why would God tell us to submit to it?

That’s the question this series is built to answer.

We’re beginning a study of Romans 13:1–7, one of the most direct passages inthe Scripture on theChristian’s relationship to civil government. Before we get into the text itself, we need some background because if we jump straight into chapter 13 without context, it won’t grip our souls the way it should.

Paul wrote this letter to the Romans in AD 57. Dates tend to make people tune out, but this one matters. Emperor Nero was on the throne when Paul wrote — the same ruler who, seven years later, would burn Rome and launch an all-out assault on Christians throughout the empire. Paul was not writing to foster goodwill between Christians and Rome.

Here’s another important detail: Nero’s predecessor, Emperor Claudius, had expelled all the Jews from Rome in AD 49. That event was still fresh in these Christians’ minds. They had fled the city and lost everything; homes, businesses, possessions, forced to leave on short notice.

Taxation was already a burden in Rome, and an especially heavy one for Christians who were under restriction and persecution. The tax collectors, called the publicani, were private contractors who extracted tolls and kept a percentage for themselves. So imagine how Paul’s instruction to pay taxes and customs would have landed in a system widely seen as extortion.

Romans 12:1–2 is the anchor for this whole section of Paul’s letter. Keep that passage in mind as you read chapter 13:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

That passage anchors everything Paul says in chapters 12 through 15. Paul has spent chapters 1 through 11 unfolding the gospel. Chapter 12:1–2 gives the only reasonable response to it: offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Once you understand chapters 1 through 11, you have no other option. You freely and joyfully give yourself to God, holy, acceptable to him. That is your reasonable worship.

God has justified you by faith in Jesus. He has forgiven all your sins in Christ. He has adopted you as sons and daughters. Because of this, every believer must answer two questions, whether they realize it or not: How must I think? And how must I live? A transformed mind offers itself as a living sacrifice, humbly serving others, and it proves that transformation through loving action. Paul is answering these two questions across chapters 12 through 15, and Romans 13 is where he applies them directly to government.

Paul has just told us, as believers, never to avenge ourselves: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (12:19). When someone wrongs you, love for God and love for others means you do not take justice into your own hands.

But that raises an urgent question. If we can never avenge ourselves; if we are only to overcome evil with good, as Paul says in 12:19–21, does that mean evil goes unanswered? Does the criminal walk free? Does the oppressor face no consequence?

Paul answers that question in Romans 13. Vengeance is not abolished. It is relocated. God restrains evil not through the private vengeance of the wronged individual, but through the public sword of the civil magistrate.

From this text, we will answer four questions every Christian must ask:

1. Who gave government its authority?
2. What is government actually for?
3. Why should I obey it?
4. What do I owe it?

We’ll take these one at a time over the next several posts. Up first: the command itself, and the striking claim behind it — that every governing authority, however imperfect, was put there by God.

Next in this series: Part 2 — All Authority Comes from God